Initial Advantages

I have the initials, when not trading as UT, of DP. Not all that handy. No.

Handy initials would be SS. Allow me to demonstrate why.

SS - You can write your initials like the two lightning bolts in KISS.

SS - You share the initials of one of the 80s, and most of the 90s, finest bat manufacturers, Stuart Surridge. It was good enough for Graham Gooch (GG! Not quite Gordon Greenidge mind you - Graham may have been better but Gordon was much cooler...the very antithesis of Graham's "it's grim up north" demeanor, which is odd as he was born and bred in Essex) and me (first bat was an SS).

SS - I skip delicately over the Schutzstaffel.

SS - The Sydney Silky (for it is!) is one of Australia's most loved terriers. I have known two, i.e. Roselea (not named after the Bob Seager, and thin lizzy covered, song) and here charming son Walter (most definitely named after the scorer of mountainous runs Hammond).

SS - Few things are better than steam ships.

War is over (if you want it)

Squid Ink's war against apathy, child-rearing and the deleterious impact of modern-day work commitments has finally been won. On May 8 — VE Day according to Wikipedia — there will be no peace in our time, only red-hot rock.

Banners will wave, strangers will kiss in the street, panty-hose will become suddenly affordable once more and — most importantly — the boys from Squid Ink will play live for the first time in more than a year.

Eight Legs to Hold You, an opus three-days in the making, will be launched upon the world with a corruscating live performance at the Brunswick Hotel. New merchandise will be available, as will copies of the album and — possibly if the publishing department can meet its deadlines — the first ever, colllector's item, issue of the Squid Ink zine.

There will be new material to unveil and old favourites to revisit as the Squid Army gets a new set of orders from its four Churchillian overlords. No war can be won by one band and support will come from Ships and Thieves as well as The Chemistry Set. The Age calls them: “Among the best bands ever to have a shared a stage with the eight-legged bushmen of the calamari.”*

More details to follow as they come to hand.

*technically not The Age per se but Silky-D, though he does work there.